1st Punic War

The empire of Carthage included the coast of North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, and western Sicily, giving the trading empire control of the western Mediterranean. Their empire had grown on the basis of trade and taxation with which it was able to build up its military. Polybius says the first treaty between Rome and Carthage was in the first year of the Roman Republic (at the end of the sixth century). In 306, by which time the Romans had conquered almost the entire Italian peninsula, the two powers reciprocally recognized a Roman sphere of influence over Italy and a Carthaginian one over Sicily. But Italy was determined to secure dominance over all of Magna Graecia (the areas settled by Greeks in and around Italy), even if it meant interfering with the dominance of Carthage in Sicily.
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• 4 Periods of Roman History
• Maps of Rome
• Magna Graecia